Correspondent archives

Laurence Bry

“I am a Canadian who has been living in France for 17 year. I now run a concierge service called Provence Confidential for visitors wanting to discover the tastes and beauty of the region. You can follow my blog or my Facebook page”

On my way home from visiting friends who run a vineyard in Ansouis, I saw in the Luberon village of Villelaure a sign I somehow missed before: ‘Green Asparagus – Marseille Paris London’. And amusingly, the green asparagus – asperges vertes – were raised by a M. Robert Blanc.

If you had a grand-mère provençale, and asked her about herbes de Provence, she would probably have replied “Qu’ est-ce que c’ est?”. She would, of course, have cooked with the herbs she kept outside her kitchen door or gathered as she walked near the house, perennial plants that could thrive in hot, sunny locations.

The French Government classifies, protects, and regulates nearly 60 cheeses and gives them an AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) accreditation. ‘Chèvre’, which means both goat and goat cheese, has long been part of the Provençal menu.

We may love sugar and hunger for the tang of peppery foods, but salt is the only food seasoning that we really can’t live without. Small amounts of salt are essential for animal life and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes.

Olive trees are essential to Provence. The olives themselves are important, of course, but also their oil, which is the base of the cuisine of the region… No wonder the olive tree has been called “The king of Provence”.

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Citation

"De nos jours, la plupart des gens meurent d'une espèce de bon sens rampant et découvrent trop tard qu'il n'y a que les erreurs qu'on ne regrette jamais.Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, & discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes."

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